The Concept of ‘Resilience’ in EU External Relations: A Critical Assessment

European foreign affairs review. 2019. Vol. 24. No. 3. P. 349–366.

Романова Т. А.

The 2016 Global Strategy (GS) made resilience central to the European Union’ s (EU’ s)

external activities. However, many aspects of resilience were ambiguous. Three of these aspects

are identified in this article: whether resilience is about risks or resources, whether resilience means

stability or change, and what is the role of values. These ambiguities created a space for the policy

work of EU bureaucracy. This work is examined in development and neighbourhood fields, and

in relations with Russia. Documents’  analysis and semi-structured interviews reveal a difference

in how three ambiguities were interpreted. Differences were identified among policy fields but not

between EU institutions. These differences reflect the efforts of EU officials to preserve consistency

in ‘ their’  fields. This policy work undermines one important goal for introducing resilience in the

GS, the enhanced coherence of EU external activities. Finally, the study revealed that some

interpretations moved closer to the theoretical writings on resilience compared with the GS.

Ключевые слова: Европейский Союз, European Union, стрессоустойчивость, политика развития, Европейский Союз и Россия, Европейская политика соседства, European Neighbourhood Policy, European Union and Russia, development policy, resilience